News + Opinion

Must-Sees This Week: October 27 to November 2, 2016

Laakkuluk Williamson-Bathory’s video Timiga nunalu, sikulu (My body, the land and the ice) (2016) is part of #callresponse opening in Vancouver this week. Courtesy the artist and videographer Jamie Griffiths.

Lots of great art exhibitions and events are taking place across the country this week. Here are our recommendations for debuting shows and events, and a few reminders about shows that are closing. Visit our Exhibition Finder for even more worthwhile shows that are already open.

Vancouver

Designed to “support the work of Indigenous North American women and artists through local art commissions that incite dialogue and catalyze action between individuals, communities, territories and institutions,” as well as “to respond to re/conciliation as a present day negotiation and the reconstruction of communities in the aftermath of colonial trauma,” the multifaceted project #callresponse launches on October 28. Watch for live performances by Maria Hupfield, IV Castellanos and Esther Neff from 1 to 4 p.m. at Emily Carr University of Art and Design from 4 to 7 p.m., by Ursula Johnson with Charlene Aleck, Audrey Siegl and Cease Wyss at the community park behind grunt gallery from 4 to 7 p.m., and by Laakkuluk Williamson-Bathory and Tanya Tagaq at Native Education College at 8 p.m. A related exhibition featuring art by Christi Belcourt, Maria Hupfield, Ursula Johnson, Tania Willard and Laakkuluk Williamson-Bathory opens that same day at grunt gallery from 7 to 10 p.m.

Elsewhere, VIVO Media Arts Centre’s Thirstdays event on October 27, curated by Tannis Nielsen and Jenny Fraser, includes a performance by Lori Blondeau and video by and featuring Lee Maracle Mique’l Dangeli and Nick Dangeli and Rita Wong, among others. Designed to affirm the urgency of defending land and water, this installment of Thirstdays kicks off at 7:30 p.m. Heffel opens its fall live auction preview on October 29 at 11 a.m. at its gallery space.

For the duration of Luminocity, Dion and Ryland Fortie transform the Rotary Bandshell into Auxiliary Glow, a reserve of lights and visuals, bizarre shadows, strange characters, analog video effects and visuals. The bandshell is also home to two weekends of live musical performances featuring local and touring bands and DJs as well as evening talks, screenings and performances throughout the week.

Victoria

How does process affect concept? This intriguing question is tackled in the exhibition “It’s in the Making” openingon October 29 at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. Artists with a connection to the West Coast and Victoria—Angela Teng, Shelley Penfold, Jess Willa Wheaton, Nicholas Galanin and Cedric, Nathan and Jim Bomford—explore materials and highlight relationships between ideas, techniques and space, providing new kinds of objects for us to engage with. (As an example, check out our recent article on Teng.) Curated by Haema Sivanesan and Nicole Stanbridge.

Toronto

Art Toronto, Canada’s largest international art fair, hits the Metro Toronto Convention Centre this weekend, opening to the public October 28 to 31. This year includes the first edition of, well, Edition, an admission-fee-free art-books event. Make sure to check out Canadian Art’s list of editors’ best bets, fair guide, Gareth Long booth installation, daily 12:30 p.m. tours, and our Saturday panel among all the other attractions.

Elsewhere, a host of openings and activities add to the fair goings-on. Sara Cwynar debuts new works at Cooper Cole on October 28 from 6 to 9 p.m. “If By Dull Rhymes:Kristan Horton and David Armstrong Six,” featuring cameos, a press image teases, by Christopher Walken, opens at Clint Roenisch Gallery on October 28 from 8 to 10 p.m. Galerie Division opens a show by Michel de Broin and Graham Gillmore on October 29 from 1 to 4 p.m. Painter Brian Rideout has a show, “Resilient Floors,” opening at AC Repair Co. on Friday October 28. Y+ contemporary opens “Logs,” a group exhibition curated by Tak Pham. Including Rouzbeh Akhbari and Ash Moniz, Benny Hunter, and Mariam Magsi, on October 29 from 2 to 5 p.m.

On the pedagogical front, Gallery TPW hosts a study session related to its current Sharon Lockhart exhibition on October 27 at 6:30 p.m. Led by School of the Art Institute of Chicago professor Karyn Sandlos, the session looks at Lockhart’s film installation Rudzienko through the lens of critical pedagogy, psychoanalysis and ethics. And Jayce Salloum delivers a lecture at Ryerson School of Image Arts on November 1 at 7 p.m.

Montreal

On October 27 at 6 p.m., Darling Foundry presents two performances: Doux, a collaboration between Julie Favreau and Anne Thériault, exploring eroticism, senses and materials; and a special creation by Adva Zakaï in reaction to Favreau’s current exhibition at the gallery. Experimental video collective Undervolt & Co., who distribute online and IRL time-based art, are releasing a collection of 11 new works on November 2 from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Society of Arts and Technology; the works will screen through November. Several shows of note wrap up on October 29, including “Putting Rehearsals to the Test: It’s Not About Models, It’s About Modeling” at Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery; Jessica Eaton at Galerie Antoine Ertaskiran; and Grier Edmundson at Battat Contemporary.

Calgary

Artist Jason de Haan gives a lecture with Art Gallery of Alberta curator Kristy Trinier at the Alberta College of Art and Design on October 28 at 7 p.m. The talk relates to de Haan’s new exhibition “Grey to Pink” at the AGA in Edmonton, as well as the path de Haan has taken since graduating from ACAD in 2006. Elsewhere, Marigold Santos’s exhibition at Jarvis Hall Gallery wraps up on October 29.

Winnipeg

Dominique Rey, known for her investigations into different female subcultures, gives an artist talk at Plug In ICA on October 27 at 7 p.m. Her talk relates to work in the current group exhibition “Superimposition: Sculpture and Image,” which fuses the photograph and sculpture. Possibilities that come from fusing algorithms and machine tooling with woodcut printing are in the spotlight at Martha Street Studio on October 28 with the opening of “Monument: Coding a Woodcut” by Beth Howe and Clive McCarthy. Howe (of Vancouver) and McCarthy (of San Francisco) are collaborating on imagery of “ of the industrial and monumental and yet rather commonplace: bridges and overpasses, public transit, boulders and debris piles” in hopes of generating new visual possibilities. Find out more at the artist talk at 5:30 p.m., and the reception which runs from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on opening day.

Nanaimo

Get a free lunch-time tour of“Out of Sight” with Nanaimo Art Gallery curator Jesse Birch on October 27 at 12 noon. This touring exhibition from the Vancouver Art Gallery features a selection of photographs by Eadweard Muybridge (1830–1904) and Harold Edgerton (1903–90), two giants in the history of photography who are celebrated for their extending the capacity of human perception.

Our weekly must-sees, published each Thursday, are chosen from opening and event announcements sent to preview@canadianart.ca at least two days prior to publication. For listings of art openings, exhibitions and events, visit canadianart.ca/exhibitions.